Not Holding You Back
by Krayla Pipher
Summary: Hakkai suddenly falls ill while on the road. That's all I have so far. This is VERY much in progress. Please R&R. It will help a lot. Thanks. No Pairings. Hakkaicentric.


"Not Holding You Back"  
Chapter One

It was just another normal day. The four members of the Sanzo-ikkou where sitting around a table filled with food, two of them gorging themselves, fighting over who would get the last egg roll. One was done eating early as always and was taking long drags from his cigarette. And the last member, who would have all ready been done eating and trying to referee the fighting, had yet to touch his food. In fact, he had not eaten much for the past two days, and with a somewhat muffled sneeze his three friends looked over to him.

"Hakkai, are you okay?" Goku said between swallowing his food.

"Yea man, you haven't eaten very much in the past few days." Gojyo looked suspiciously at his friend.

Sanzo just stared at the green eyed man.

Hakkai held his hands up and smiled. "I'm fine. I'm just not very hungry." He said, his voice sounding lower than usual.

Gojyo shrugged, "If you say so." He grabbed the last egg roll that he and Goku had been arguing over and scarffed it down.

Goku growled at the red haired man. "Oi! That was mine ero kappa!" he went to punch Gojyo.

Gojyo caught Goku's fist and pushed him away, "Hey, you snooze you lose monkey boy."

As they argued, Sanzo took the cigarette out of his mouth. "You sure you're okay? We're supposed to be heading out soon."

Hakkai smiled at Sanzo, "Don't worry. I won't hold you back."

Sanzo stared at Hakkai for a moment. He just shrugged and put out his cigarette, "If you say so." He finished off his tea and called over a scared waitress. He didn't say anything as he handed her the gold credit card. The waitress understood and charged the meal to the card. She returned the card to the Monk and watched the four men leave.

As the hours past and they sped across a forest path, Hakkai began to feel more and more uneasy. He couldn't stop himself from perspiring, and his hands were shaking slightly as he held on to the steering wheel. As his vision began to blur, he pulled off the side of the path and got out of the jeep. The three men in the jeep looked at him shocked and dumbfounded. "Hakkai? Are you all right?" Goku and Gojyo asked in unison.

Hakkai held the side of his head as he walked a little ways in to the forest. "Hai, I just need some air. Please excuse me for a moment." And with that he disappeared into the tangled mess of trees.

Goku and Gojyo stared after him for as long as they could. "Should. . .we go after him?" Goku asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Leave him alone. If he says he needs some air, then the last thing he needs are you two idiots bugging him." Sanzo said, closing his eyes.

After five minutes of waiting, Sanzo suddenly got out of the jeep. He acted annoyed as he followed after Hakkai, but deep down he was worried about the healer, all though he would never admit it. After a minute of searching, he found the healer sitting against a tree, his arms resting on his knees and his hands supporting his head. Sanzo walked up to him.

Hakkai heard foot steps approaching him. He slowly raised his head and saw Sanzo standing above him. He smiled weakly at the monk. "Sumimasen. I must have lost track of time." he said weakly. "Shall we continue west?" he asked sarcastically, as he got to his wobbly legs, using the tree as a brace.

Sanzo watched his movements and sighed, "CAN you continue?"

Hakkai continued to smile, "I told you before, I will not hold you back."

Sanzo shrugged and started to head back towards the jeep. "Then let's go."

As he walked after Sanzo, the world around him became a feather caught in the wind. Never still, but swaying side to side. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, but never stopping once. He had only taken a few steps when he had to stop again to catch himself on a nearby tree. He stayed there for a long moment, his eyes closed, trying to get the world to steady itself.

Sanzo didn't hear Hakkai walking behind him anymore. He turned around and saw Hakkai leaning against another tree. He frowned at the man, walking back to him. "Hakkai. . ." he started to say, but before he could finish his statement the healer started to fall to the forest floor. Sanzo's eyes widened and he ran to Hakkai, catching him before he hit the ground. Sanzo rolled Hakkai to his back, and saw that the healer was indeed sick. Something Sanzo had suspected from the very beginning. He sighed, and supported the man under his left arm and around his waist, carrying him back to the jeep. "Guess it can't be helped," he said silently. "You haven't eaten anything in two days." He finished as the jeep came into view.

Goku and Gojyo stared wide eyed as Sanzo and Hakkai emerged from the forest. Gojyo jumped from the jeep and ran to the two men. "What happened?"

"I'll explain later, you drive." Sanzo said slightly annoyed. "Goku, you're in charge of Hakkai until we get back to the village."

"We're going back?" Gojyo asked surprised.

Sanzo placed Hakkai in the back of the jeep, making sure Goku had a firm hold on the healer before turning back to Gojyo, "Do we have a choice?" he then got into the passenger seat and crossed his arms, not necessarily wanting an answer.

Gojyo took his place at the steering wheel and headed back to the village as fast as Hakuryu could take them.

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A/N: This is going to take a while to do, since I'm still not 100 sure where/what I want to take/make of this story, so please bear with me. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Comments are most appriciated.

PS. I own nothing. This is purely fan-made!


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